Tacoma port says access to rail, roads had role in shipping win

No one is saying definitively yet what gave the Port of Tacoma the edge over the Port of Seattle in the contest to win the business of three container shipping lines, but Port of Tacoma officials say it wasn’t just money.

Port spokeswoman Tara Mattina said Friday that Tacoma’s port has several advantages over its rival to the north that may have played a role in its selection as the Northwest home for the three Grand Alliance shipping lines.

Among those advantages, said Mattina, is the terminal’s on-dock rail yard, which allows containers unloaded from a ship to be loaded directly onto the train without moving those containers by truck to a railyard over public roads.